”Suki” Xiao Yan Wu was served with a “cease use” notice last month by the City of Sydney after her Town Hall Massage clinic was found to be providing sexual services. Four men turn up together for group therapy at Town Hall Massage.

The Sydney madam and the illegal $2 million sex racket

A multimillion-dollar pop-up brothel has vanished from the foyer of a Sydney residential complex, after the madam behind it was exposed in a Fairfax Media investigation.

Suki Wu has hoodwinked authorities for several years, running underground vice dens in apartment buildings, under the guise of therapeutic massage centres.

Town Hall Massage, her latest brazen venture, operates inside the Maestri Towers residential complex on Kent Street. It is less than 100 metres from St Andrew’s Cathedral School.

But after a Fairfax Media investigation exposed the illegal operation on Sunday – and its $2 million annual turnover reaped from Asian sex workers having to service up to a dozen men per shift – the business has shut.

“Good riddance; don’t come back,” was the response from Maestri Towers owner’s corporation chairman Michael Heaney who, on behalf of the building’s 1500 residents, has been tirelessly battling to evict the madam for more than a year.

He confirmed that after Fairfax Media made Wu aware of its investigation on Saturday, he received an email from a man, believed to be her business partner, stating the “situation with access restrictions” had made it “impractical” for the parlour to continue.

Mr Heaney added: “They [brothel staff] have not turned up for two days. If they do come back, we will have security staff on hand, taking down the personal details of every single client so they can be called to give evidence in any future legal proceedings.”

Fairfax Media has viewed extensive footage from inside the building’s foyer. The footage revealed that during one typical day at Town Hall Massage earlier this month, five female workers provided services to 59 male clients, over an 11-hour shift.

The shop space itself is cramped and can only accommodate a maximum seven workers in tiny booths. On busy days, more than 70 clients — all male — pass through. Security cameras show that, aside from quick visits to an adjacent toilet, the prostitutes never leave the premises – even through shifts can span 12 hours.

One client, who has contacted Fairfax Media, said that while Wu preferred never to disclose information over the phone about erotic services, “every girl” was required to provide sexual services.

Fairfax can confirm Wu is the same evasive brothel boss who, in 2013, muscled her way into a 23-storey residential complex called the Bentleigh, in Katherine Street, North Sydney, under the guise of “Pretty Baby Massage”.

After Willoughby Council finally triumphed in the Land and Environment Court and had her closed down in October 2014, she paid a $15,000 penalty — the equivalent of two busy trading days — then moved the business across the Harbour Bridge into Maestri Towers.

In recent weeks, private investigators found the business continuing to provide sexual services despite a “cease use” notice having been served by the City of Sydney on January 4.

The NSW Government is currently considering recommendations that flowed from last year’s parliamentary inquiry into the regulation of brothels, including greater police powers and a new stand-alone police unit to better identify human trafficking cases and exploitation, and to assist local government shut down rogue operators. A response is scheduled to be tabled by May.

Mr Heaney said he holds “deep concerns” for many of the overseas workers who staff the growing number of illegal brothels popping up in residential buildings across the CBD.

“I’ve spoken with other owners corporations who share these concerns. But in the absence of any real government support, they are too scared to take these sorts of people on.”